{"id":21889,"date":"2026-03-04T00:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/?p=21889"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:42:10","slug":"mana-program-celebrates-lunar-new-year-uniting-different-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/?p=21889","title":{"rendered":"Mana program celebrates Lunar New Year, uniting different cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The MANA Program celebrated Lunar New Year, where they had different Asian cultures come together with food and drinks, along with a stand full of \u201cWords of Affirmation\u201d letters for goals in life, welcoming people to the event on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This event was organized by MANA Program counselor Mai-Thi Pham, who shared that by giving out these red cards typically filled with money, \u201cYou are wishing good fortune and good energy for the new year,\u201d Pham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This event wasn’t just meant for the Asian community, but instead for all people and various clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a table close to the stage, Asian Pacific Islander Desi (APID) club president Raeven Ramos and social media rep. Sara Valdez-Salazar were there to encourage those close to join or take a flyer if any student took interest in joining the club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salazar, while not of Asian descent, has found the club welcoming and a good learning experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is so much to learn from the Asian community. The LBCC population is very diverse. The club cares so much about inclusivity and welcoming other people,\u201d Salazar said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MANA Program counselor Mai-Thi Pham, left, plays Bau Cua Ca Cop, a Vietnamese gambling dice game, with a group of students at the MANA Program Lunar New Year Celebration on Feb. 17 at the LAC campus. (Tien Nguyen)<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many were present during the event, many of different cultural backgrounds, like LBCC student Crystal Rios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get to see other cultures, I love reading about other cultures, and what they do, so that\u2019s why Lunar Year is significant to me,\u201d Rios said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the club members of MANA, Tristan Nguyen, expressed appreciation for LBCC allowing their students to culturally express themselves through events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s super important, I think it\u2019s really awesome that LBCC has the space to do this. So in the end of the day, as the MANA program, we made sure to be seen, heard, and have the space on campus to do these events, like look around the room, we have outside organizations, we have the program itself,\u201d Nguyen said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nguyen also shared that the event brought everyone together.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have our family and friends show up, even the student wards are enjoying themselves, so we\u2019re just kind of seeing ourselves come together,\u201d said Nguyen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MANA Program celebrated Lunar New Year, where they had different Asian cultures come together with food and drinks, along with a stand full of \u201cWords of Affirmation\u201d letters for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":21890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6229],"tags":[3849,6076,74,29,1263,142,68,6627,6490,6519,81],"class_list":["post-21889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-apid","tag-asian-pacific-islander-desi","tag-lac","tag-lbcc","tag-lifestyle","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-city-college","tag-lunar-new-year","tag-mana","tag-mana-club","tag-students"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Skgy-5H3","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lifestyle_20260217_LunarNewYearCeleb_TNguyen_0005.jpg?fit=2400%2C1600&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21892,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889\/revisions\/21892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}